Benchmark Indices End Lower; Await US Jobs Data

Benchmark indices ended the day lower, in what was a bad week for the market, with the index losing ground on 4 or out of the 5 trading days of the week.

Global markets were also extremely tentative with the European markets trading lower, while most of Asia also closed lower.

The US Jobs data to be declared today would be an important cue, ahead of the US Fed's policy meet next month.

The Sensex ended the day with losses of 33 points, while the Nifty lost 2 points in trade.

Leading the set of losers were Dr Reddy's, Vedanta, Lupin and HDFC Bank. Heavyweight, ITC which had dragged the indices lower in trade, following reports of closure of factory, due to tobacco warnings, gained ground and ended the day higher.

Adani Ports, which had a miserable week of trading lost ground for the fourth successive day and ended lower once again.

Gail was the biggest winner from the Nifty jumping a huge 5 per cent. Select banking stocks were the stars in trade today with Karnataka Bank topping the list of gainers with a rise of 5 per cent. Syndicate Bank, Allahabad Bank and Bank of Baroda were the other winners.

Syndicate Bank jumped after the bank allotted 9.5 crore equity shares at Rs 77.79/share to government on preferential basis.

Meanwhile, markets across Asia ended the day lower, while most of Europe was trading with losses.